Small things

I had seen a quote which, I had read, was a Swedish Proverb: Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. I quite liked it... until I read something which intrigued me - including a lot of quote pics which didn't include "Swedish Proverb".

An Ask site, Metafilter, in 2011 said it wasn't Swedish. I looked further. 

Wikispaces, in  Planeta Wiki, said it was Swedish language in English but they used a question mark. It was listed in English in Swedish Freak and was printed in an Indian book "Creative Management" by Hem Shanker Ray in 2006, page 296. Indian Mind Publications, apparently copyright 1996, gave a slightly different quote, "Worry casts long shadows of small things". 

Meryl Beck included it a "Needless worry" blog in August 2003 and called it Swedish. GIGA Quotes is copyright 1999-2013 to John C. Shepard, last revised in March 2013 but no indication when this "Swedish quote" was attached (see page 388). It showed up as Quote 9814 on Baertracks' "Creative Proverbs", which was copyrighted in 2004 but no later date enclosed. A link line took us to a page called "Creative Proverbs from Sweden", also from Baertracks and listed copyright 1996-2013. 

All Posters had an old picture selling for $USD12.99, no date and no quoter acknowledged. 

Anyway, the College of Education instructor Elizabeth Doone, PhD, based at Malmo in Sweden, listed this quote on a Summer Abroad in Sweden tour in 2016. Perhaps it really is Swedish. If Sweden accepts it then it can't be wrong. 

This big shadow has gotten a bit smaller.  

 

Puff the Magic Dragon

Very recently I remembered the song Puff the Magic Dragon which I’d grown with as a kid, and I wanted to look up images for Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton who wrote it back in 1959 and recorded it in 1963. I Googled the images – and one on the very first line said that it was Unknown! I couldn’t believe this – that song has been around for 53 years and it was written 57 years ago!

I hadn’t expected to find this. It was just the words on the plain-coloured pic, and was posted by QuotesPick.com. The quote didn’t even say the words in the song as they actually appeared. They’d taken a line from the third verse and mixed it with a line from the first verse. What was that supposed to mean to the dragon?

There’s a story in TheStar website in 2007 about the new book with a new page at the end showing that the daughter of Jackie Paper meets the dragon. The book was done by Yarrow and Lipton and illustrated by Eric Puybaret, and the CD was done with Yarrow and his daughter Bethany. Yarrow figured the new book would provide another “kind of importance”.  I think the world needs this dragon.

At least for the kids. 

Puff the Magic Dragon

Singers: Peter, Paul & Mary

Songwriters: Peter Yarrow/Leonard Lipton 1959, recorded 1963

Revised in a book with a CD in 2007 (words changed are italicised)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puff,_the_Magic_Dragon

Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff

Oh, Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee
Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff's gigantic tail
Noble kings and princes would bow whene'er they came
Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name

Oh, Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee
Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee

A dragon lives forever, but not so girls and boys
Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane
Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave
So Puff, that mighty dragon, sadly slipped into his cave

Oh, Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee
Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee

 

She was only kidding...

1977 was a real year for feminism, it seems. I bought my own badge sometime around then which said “When God created man She was only kidding.” So many similar quotes bounced out of then with no name acknowledged on anything that was – and still is – sold. T-shirts, badges, stickers, posters, mugs – every selling thing at least since 1977, and none printed with who said the quote! 

My badge had been filed away with all my other very old stuff which I just take with me wherever I go. Like my Singapore study – handwritten because PCs (personal computers) didn’t exist then; a letter from my grandfather who died in hospital in 1964; my old (1975 – I was 19) untitled poem with the first line “Won’t somebody love me?”. 

I found the badge recently when I had gone through my very old stuff, put it away, and found it again today. I decided – probably a very silly idea – to try to find out who said it. Nada. I think this quote is far too old and “unknown” that it hasn’t appeared in anyone’s speech on record. Gloria Steinem was mentioned for saying something like this, but I can’t find if she actually said this. 

What I found was books, including: 

• Fragments that remain by Steven Corbin, 1993 – “When God made man, she was only kidding” – no acknowledgement.
• Rebellious Laughter: People’s Humor in American Culture by Joseph Boskin, 1997 – “When God made man she was only joking”. This one was apparently from 1977 feminism, last word changed but no acknowledgement.
• The White Gorilla: Graves Quary by Bruce Holmberg, 2010 - “She knew God had a sense of humour She made men” – also a little bit different but no acknowledgment. 

Webpages included Poetic Expressions – in “Marriage Jokes” page “When God created man, she was only joking” filled a line – no person acknowledged for saying it.

I found the counter-quote "When God created Eve, he was only joking" in a comment on a story about SXSW: 'Trainwreck" Star Amy Schimer on 16 March 2015 - the comment was 22 March. This guy is obviously not a feminist, but no acknowledgement about who said what he quoted - maybe that makes him very... male.

I only spent a couple of hours looking through the stuff I found on the internet, and I'm oretty sure I've come up with a blank. This saying - or any of the ones this has been changed to - has gone around the world heaps of times since at least 1977 and, as I mentioned at the start, now comes out in t-shirts, badges, stickers, posters, mugs - every selling thing.

I often like every quote which I see that acknowledges the person who originally said it. Unfortunately, this one seems to have popped out (with a few minor changes) too many years ago. If anyone reading this has any paper evidence as to who said it, please contact me - I'd love to know!

I'm not kidding!